Did Kohn Believe in the “Kohn Dichotomy”? Reconsidering Kohn's Journey from The Political Idea of Judaism to the Idea of Nationalism 1

Did Kohn Believe in the “Kohn Dichotomy”? Reconsidering Kohn's Journey from The Political Idea of Judaism to the Idea of Nationalism 1

Abstract

Leo Baeck InstituteYear Book Vol. 55, 295^311 doi:10.1093/lbyb/ybq039 BY University of Washington The recent reprinting of Hans Kohn’s classic 1944 study The Idea of Nationalism: A Study in Its Origins and Background (2005) re£ects renewed interest among scholars of nationalism in the man regarded as one of the founders of the ¢eld. In his introduction to this re-publication, sociologist Craig Calhoun explains Kohn’s enduring import as the ‘‘most in£uential source of both the opposition of civic and ethnic nationalism and of its association with a parallel opposition between Western and Eastern varieties of modernity’’.2 This dichotomy distinguishes two typologies of nationalism: one grounded in familial, natural and territorial ties and the second based on shared commitment to rational, humanistic and liberal principles. The two paths in modern nationalism re£ect mutually exclusive choices in constructing collective identityçdescent versus consent, cultural ties versus political citizenship, and group recognition versus individual equality. Reviving the ‘Kohn dichotomy’ speaks to a pressing need today. Following the end of the Cold War, ethnic nationalisms are often perceived as posing a tremendous threat to individual rights and humanistic principles. Racial identity, religious commitments and national chauvinism increasingly challenge the hegemony of civic and universal principles